3M Renewable Energy is debuting its latest innovative solution for the solar industry at Solar Power International, October 21-24 in Chicago, Ill. The new 3M Backside Busbar Tape 4706 allows manufacturers to eliminate silver-based backside busbars, enabling significant cost savings and protecting against the volatility of silver prices. In addition to these benefits, this tape-based solution has the potential to improve absolute efficiency by approximately 0.2 percent.

3M Backside Busbar Tape 4706 is a copper foil tape coated with a high-performance heat-curable adhesive on one side. The tape can be bonded to aluminum pastes commonly used on the back surface of crystalline solar cells, and provide reliable, low-resistance electrical contact comparable to backside silver busbars. Preliminary tests have shown stable long-term electrical performance in damp heat and thermal cycling.

3M Backside Busbar Tape 4706 can be incorporated into existing manufacturing processes with an automated tape bonder. The fast-curing thermoset adhesive enables high productivity to match typical cell manufacturing processes. These cells can be inter-connected using standard tabbing and stringing operations in typical panel manufacturing.

3M representatives will be on site at booth number 426 at SPI to speak with interested parties about how 3M Backside Busbar Tape 4706 can be incorporated into their products.